Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Mark Dybul has pledged support to Vietnam to sustainably maintain achievements in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

A new strategy should be applied in HIV/AIDS prevention and control, with a focus on early treatment in HIV-positive cases, ambulatory treatment, and extending treatment services to jails and remote and poor areas, said a Health Ministry official.

A seminar was held in Hanoi on December 14 to review the Sustainable Management of the HIV/AIDS Response and Transition to Technical Assistance Project (SMART TA), funded under the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Though the government urged the health sector must facilitate people living with HIV/AIDS to have medical insurance, just around 40 percent of them have insurance cards. In fact, HIV infected people's treatment fee is covered by insurance company.

Vietnam will face a huge budget deficit in health services for people with HIV/AIDS in the next five years, an official from the HIV/AIDS Prevention Agency, Duong Thuy Anh, said at a conference on insurance payments for ARV therapy on November 28.

A national action month for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS will take place from November 10 to December 10 with the theme “Towards the 90-90-90 Target to End the AIDS Epidemic in Vietnam,” according to the National Committee for the Prevention and Control of AIDS, Drug Addiction and Prostitution.